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Travis Kalanick

Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Atoms

Search every verified Travis Kalanick interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Travis Kalanick, co-founder and former CEO of Uber, has recently emerged from a period of operating in stealth mode to publicly discuss his new company, Atoms, which he leads as CEO. Atoms is focused on physical automation and robotics to transform specific industries, with current operations in food, mining, and transport. Kalanick has described the company's mission as competing for the "next industrial revolution," and has stated that Atoms raised a $1.7 billion funding round. He has said that the company operates with "gainfully employed robots" and aims to make food preparation and delivery as efficient as going to the grocery store, which he has compared to what Uber did for personal transportation. In interviews and public appearances, Kalanick has reflected on his time at Uber, stating he stands by his decisions there while acknowledging he sometimes got "too close to the line." He has also discussed his decision to build Atoms in stealth for nearly eight years, attributing it to a media environment where "business became politics." Kalanick has commented on the changing media landscape, crediting Elon Musk's acquisition of Twitter with enabling more open discussion. He has also expressed views on European regulation, arguing that the "process of regulation trumps the outcome" and can hinder innovation. Regarding the future of work, Kalanick has argued that automation will create more jobs until machines fully replicate human capabilities, and he has described his personal commute to work as a five-minute jet ski ride.

Recent appearances

  • The Secret to Scaling Ambition Across Industries | Dreamforce 2026

    September 17, 2026 · 📺 Salesforce

    Marc Benioff and Travis Kalanick explore what it takes to scale ambitious ideas across software, robotics, fulfillment, and autonomy. Hear how leaders stay focused while building across vastly different industries. Learn more about Agentforce: https://www.salesforce.com/agentforce/ Timestamps: 0:00 Introduction and origins 1:36 The birth of Uber 4:21 Disruption and legal hurdles 5:54 Digitizing physical industries 9:08 The vision for Cloud Kitchens 11:53 Operational model and scale 15:27 The speed of physical innovation 18:03 Expanding into autonomy 21:03 Physical AI frontiers 23:41 The B2B…

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  • Travis Kalanick on Benchmark, the Coup, and What He’d Do Differently

    August 16, 2026 · 📺 David Senra

    Travis Kalanick is best known for co-founding Uber and building it into one of the world’s largest transportation platforms. Before Uber, he spent years building Red Swoosh under extreme financial pressure. He says he took no salary for its first four years, repeatedly ran out of money and lost much of his social life to the company before eventually selling it. He later invested much of the proceeds in friends’ startups, becoming the first investor in Expensify. Kalanick started Uber at 33 and carried the intensity of those earlier years into the company. He describes operating with “precisi…

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  • Travis Kalanick: How AI Will Transform the Physical World

    August 14, 2026 · 📺 a16z

    Ben Horowitz, Travis Kalanick, and Erik Torenberg take the stage at Atoms' launch event for a candid fireside conversation about entrepreneurship, company building, and why Kalanick believes the next industrial revolution will be powered by AI. They revisit pivotal moments from Uber's history, including the decision not to acquire Lyft, lessons from scaling one of the world's fastest-growing companies, and how Kalanick has evolved as a founder. The conversation also explores Atoms' vision for industrial AI, why software is moving into the physical world, what it takes to build enduring compan…

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  • HackingFace, Science Funding, Travis Kalanick Joins, New Apple Gear

    July 27, 2026 · 📺 TBPN

    00:06:27 HackingFace 00:22:23 𝕏 Timeline Reactions 00:33:37 White House Puts $5B into AI Science 00:38:23 𝕏 Timeline Reactions 00:49:30 Veeral Patel, Director of Software Engineering at Ramp, discusses the launch of Ramp Router, a tool developed internally over three years to optimize AI model selection and token cost management. He explains how Ramp Router allows enterprises to dynamically route tasks to the most efficient AI models, balancing factors like latency, cost, and performance. Patel emphasizes that this product aligns with Ramp's mission to help companies save time and money, exten…

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  • What Do Food, Mining, And Transportion Have In Common? | Travis Kalanick

    July 24, 2026 · 📺 MTS and a16z

    Travis Kalanick joins MTS to discuss Atoms' approach to food robotics, autonomous mining infrastructure, and the shift toward specialized robotics at industrial scale. -- ⁠https://x.com/travisk⁠ -- MTS is a live news and interview show covering technology, business, politics, and culture as it happens. Follow MTS: X |⁠ ⁠⁠⁠  / mtslive⁠⁠   YouTube |⁠ ⁠⁠⁠   / @mtsituation   Spotify |⁠ ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/4HUNNmV... Apple |⁠ ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast... Substack |⁠ ⁠⁠⁠https://mtslive.substack.com/⁠⁠ Interested in sponsoring the show? ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠[email protected]⁠⁠⁠ -- Brough…

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  • Inside Travis Kalanick’s Wild New AI Company

    July 22, 2026 · 📺 TBPN

    This is our full interview with Travis Kalanick. We discuss his new $1.7 billion funding round, why he's betting on industrial AI instead of consumer AI, how autonomous mining can increase productivity by 30 to 40%, why he believes AI will make food dramatically cheaper, what he looks for when hiring executives, lessons from scaling Uber, the future of robotics, AI regulation, and why he commutes to work on a jet ski. TBPN is made possible by: Ramp - https://ramp.com Public - https://public.com Cisco - https://www.cisco.com Console - https://www.console.com CrowdStrike - https://www.crowdstr…

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  • Building a Company in Stealth | Travis Kalanick with a16z

    July 22, 2026 · 📺 a16z

    Travis Kalanick, Ben Horowitz, and Erik Torenberg reunite to reflect on Uber's early days, the investment that almost happened, and why Kalanick believes the next great technology opportunity lies beyond software. They discuss the lessons of building Uber, the value of founder-led companies, and why Kalanick spent nearly eight years quietly building Atoms before stepping back into the spotlight. The conversation explores industrial AI, robotics, autonomy, mining, food production, and Kalanick's vision for digitizing the physical world, where software, manufacturing, real estate, and transpor…

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  • Travis Kalanick, CEO, Atoms | Leaders Talk

    July 10, 2026 · 📺 FII Institute

    Can Automation Truly Transform Industries? Travis Kalanick, CEO of Atoms, joins Ana Blanquart at the FII TV Studio during FII PRIORITY Europe 2026 in Rome to discuss how autonomous systems and "gainfully employed robots" are transforming industries from mining to transport, and what this means for the future of work and global productivity. Watch the full interview for insights on automation, robotics, AI, innovation, and the future of industry. #FIIPRIORITY #EuropeReimagined

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  • Travis Kalanick on the Story Behind Building Uber | CLS 2026

    July 10, 2026 · 📺 Turning Point USA

    Travis Kalanick at CLS 2026 🔴 Subscribe to our channel ►https://bit.ly/3gi53YK SOCIAL MEDIA: 🇺🇸 Instagram ►   / turningpointusa   🇺🇸 X ► https://x.com/TPUSA 🇺🇸 Facebook ►   / turningpointusa   🇺🇸 TikTok ►   / turningpointusaofficial   👕 Buy Merch HERE: https://tpusamerch.com ○ All Links ► http://bit.ly/TurningPointUSA

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  • Travis Kalanick: How the billionaire former Uber CEO is re-emerging from stealth mode after 8 years

    July 09, 2026 · 📺 Spear's Magazine

    Travis Kalanick, former CEO of Uber explains why - and how - he went 'full stealth' for almost a decade. Speaking to Spear's at FII Priority Europe in Rome, Kalanick tells editor-in-chief Edwin Smith why he built his business Atoms out of the public eye. For 8 years, Kalanick worked with 4,000 employees but 'nobody could put the name of the company on LinkedIn,' he says. And when it was time to come out, he found a very different world, he explains. 'Now, we realise that business is politics.' In this conversation: -How Kalanick wants to continue revolutionising industries with robotics and…

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  • Reimagining Autonomy with Travis Kalanick | FII PRIORITY Europe 2026 | Day 2

    June 19, 2026 · 📺 FII Institute

    As autonomous systems move from experiments to critical infrastructure, they are reshaping industries from logistics and manufacturing to transport and services. This discussion explores whether Europe can use its strengths in safety, trust, and regulation to lead in autonomy or risk becoming dependent on technologies developed elsewhere. Speaker: Travis Kalanick, CEO, Atoms Moderator: Barbara Carfagna, Journalist & Anchor, RAI #FIIPRIORITY #EuropeReimagined

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  • Two Legendary Founders: Travis Kalanick & Michael Dell Live from Austin, Texas

    March 17, 2026 · 📺 All-In Podcast

    (0:00) Travis Kalanick: Officially exiting stealth mode, what he's been working on (5:52) How to automate the physical world, ...

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Verified interview transcripts

Notable quotes

“The way to think about it is that up until now our data center business has been almost entirely GPUs. Vera is our CPU, and you know what's really exciting is that Vera opens a brand new 200 billion TAM for NVIDIA, a market we have never addressed before, and every major hyperscaler is partnering with us to get it deployed, and that's huge for the company because for the first time we have a second engine of that sca”

“We're competing for the next industrial revolution. It's basically multiple hundred billion or trillion dollar industries that are going to get automated. We talk about digital AI and what it does to the enterprise, but these industries on their own are big.”

“Look, I think probably one of the coolest things and this is part of why I'm out versus not before uh is that the media landscape has completely changed. The media landscape 10 years ago, 90% of what was said was very negative. Business had become politics and we didn't know it.”

“The industrial age we are entering is very analogous to that time. It's analogous to that time politically and the political resistance that's going to emerge and that resistance making the problem like multiplied harder because of it. Um but the polymathic problem solving that's necessary to make it happen where you have to be a business strategist, a technology strategist, um a regulatory guru and super hyper creat”

“I continue to stand by every decision I made at Uber. But you know there are a lot of times where you could just make the argument I just got way too close to the line and then yeah I could show that there's no chalk on on the shoe. I could show but you would need a electromagnetic scanning microscope to see that there was no chalk on the shoe.”

“When I play out the logic of it, I just don't see it. An example that I like to use is imagine if construction got completely automated like just except again this is a hypothetical except for plumbers. Okay, except for plumbers. So we just hadn't automated plumbing yet. Okay, let's just say, well, if you had automated everything else and you just went and looked at your city, there'd be thousands of buildings going ”

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